X9
by Fearia
Summary: What would happen if the youngest of Lydecker's daughters was Max's nurse after the X5s attack on Manticore? A/N-Now with Logan acting like a little kid in chapter 3!!!
1. A Day with and without Max

Title-X9

Title-X9

Author-Fearia

Summary-DIDN'T U READ IT???

Rating-PG-13

Disclaimer-I didn't create dark angel, so leave me alone!!!!

Max awoke with a jolt. Suddenly, she felt a hand pat her arm gently. A beautiful, dark red haired girl was writing something on a clipboard.

"Welcome back, Max! It seems that you have woken up!" the girl said cheerfully.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Max demanded.

"My name is Cossette, and I am a nurse. And I think that you know the answer to the second question." Cossette's hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail. Her sharp, blood red eyes bolted from the clipboard to the monitor and she filled out Max's charts.

She turned quickly, making her ponytail move to one side. A barcode suddenly appeared on her neck. "Are you a prototype?" Max asked after seeing the anomaly.

Cossette nodded as she measured out thirty CCs of injection for Max. "Now I guarantee that this will sting!" She pierced Max's skin with the needle and pushed the plunger of the syringe.

Max, surprisingly to Cossette, did not wince from the pain. But she did ask after the injection, "How long have you been a nurse?"

Cossette only looked like a teenager and surprised Max with her answer. "Since I was six!"

"SIX?????"

They were very rudely interrupted by the door's sudden opening. Madame X, or Renfro, called, "Miss Lydecker, may I have a word with you?" The moody **(ahem) **female dog of a woman walked through the door of the ward. "Preferably now!"

"Please excuse me," Cossette gently said to Max. She followed Madame X out the door.

"Yes, ma'am?" Cossette grumpily asked.

Madame X closed the door to the ward and glared at the girl standing in front of her. "Miss Lydecker, your father may have shown favoritism with you, but now that he is missing, no one will grant you those favors! Nor will I show ANY favoritism to you!"

"Ma'am, I do not know what favors you speak of! You know very well that my father gave me the most training out of all of the X series kids combined! I got the longest training sessions, longest lectures. Why else do you think that I can work at Manticore at a young age? Now tell me, what favors?"

"X9/8375-"

"Ma'am, I have a name!"

"Miss Lydecker, if you talk back to me one more time, I can have you shipped off just like the other members of your sorry group! Your father was a fool to create you!"

"Any way, ma'am, I have a patient to take care of!" Cosette interrupted. "Please excuse me!" Cossette walked back into the ward.

Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and is the only free voice left in this country. This is a special nation-wide Eyes only to report to the surviving members of X5. It is my great dismay that I must report the death of X5/452 and the capture of X5/599. Eyes only has the possession of X5/599's contact number and requests all with the number to contact immediately. The fate of your family rests upon it.

Logan Cale, the cutie, turned off the hacking equipment and looked up at his friend, Bling. "Do you think that will help our cause?"

Bling shrugged. "Only if the other X5s saw it!"

Logan's phone rang. "Hope that's one of them now!" Logan picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Logan, where's my homegirl?" It was Original Cindy. Logan sighed, making her worried. "What happened?"

"Bad guys with guns shot her in the heart."

Original Cindy fell silent. "I-I-is she okay?"

"She's gone," Logan said sadly.

"What?"

"I said she's gone, dammit!" Logan snapped.

"She can't be!" Original Cindy's voice was starting to shake. "Boo wouldn't let anything hit her!"

"I wish it were so!" Logan said slowly. He expected a reply, but only heard the phone click as she hung it up.

Max's heart monitor sped up when Cossette walked back into the ward. She noticed the change. "Is something wrong, Max?"

"No!" Max's voice was higher than usual.

"It's the Miss Lydecker thing, isn't it?"

Max looked at Cossette strangely.

Cossette held out her hand, as if wanting Max to shake it. "Cossette Lydecker, RN. X9/8375 code name Fear." She put her hand down when Max did not shake her hand. "And you are X5/452 code name Max, right?"

Max nodded.

"I do my homework!" Cossette said cheerfully. She picked up the clipboard with Max's charts. "Heart rate back to normal….stitches healed….skin color is back to normal….temperature is normal….Looks like you have completely recovered!"

"So what happens now?"

"You resume Manticore training tomorrow."

Max sunk into her pillow at this statement. Back to Manticore? How could she go back?

First DA ficcie, so no, tomatoes please!! Should I write more? I'll only write more if I get a certain number of reviews. So please, REVIEW!! Please no flames either! I HATE FLAMES! **(kills the flame monster)** That's all BYE BYE!!!


	2. Somehow familiar.....

Title-X9

Title-X9

Author-Fearia

Summary-Fearia helps Max out. (hehehe, how vague can you be???)

Rating-PG-13

Disclaimer-I did not create dark angel, so leave me alone!

At 2300 hours, Cossette Lydecker found herself in her quarters. She held a framed picture of her family in her hands. She thought that the glass protecting the picture should be broken, just like her family. Her father, Col. Donald Lydecker, had his arm wrapped around her mother. His hair was still dark brown instead of the gray that had plagued it when he started to work for Project Manticore. Her mother, Eponine, the blonde of the family, had her head leaned up against Donald and had her hand on her sister's shoulder. Cossette felt a twinge of painful memories flood into her mind about her sisters. She was the only X9, even though her father wanted to train them, too. Her sisters, Maryellen, who would be 20, and Kora, who would be 18, looked nothing like her, but had a wonderful childhood. They never had to learn about discipline, following orders and how to snap someone's neck with one hand. She felt sort of superior to them when she remembered why they didn't look anything like her. She was a genetically engineered killing machine, capable of kicking a dent in five-inch-thick iron. 

But the memories didn't soften the pain of the fact that her mother was killed by terrorists; her sisters had been missing for three years; and her father was dead to Manticore after he helped some of the prototypes destroy the lab and potentially destroyed Manticore. 

She was the only Lydecker left in the building, her "castle on a cloud" as her mother used to put it. Her mother loved a musical called Les Miserables, and even her mother did. They were both named after the heroines of the story. Eponine, who was raised among thieves and was killed by her love's actions, and Cossette, the little girl who was borne to a woman who was very much in love with a man until he left her when she became pregnant. But Cossette was taken care of by a band of thieves as well and was taken away by a friend of her mother's. Ironically, both of them had lived up to their own names. Donald's enemies had killed Eponine, and Cossette was raised by a corrupt system that you could consider thieves. 

Cossette fell out of her thoughts by a knock on her door. "Come in!" she called.

Madame X opened the unlocked door and walked in. "Good evening, ma'am!" Cossette greeted cheerfully. Even though she hated that woman, she still had to be a good hostess like her mother always said a woman should be. She gestured to a chair for Madame X to sit in it. Right when Cossette turned her back on her guest, she rolled her eyes because the contempt swelled up inside her.

Madame X knew very well why she was being so kind, and did as Cossette wanted. She closed the door and sat in the appointed chair. "Miss Lydecker, I would like to finish what I was saying at the ward."

Cossette sat in a chair opposite Madame X. "I am listening, ma'am."

"My advisors have convinced me to let you and X5/452 to lead a group of X7s to find the rest of the group X5."

"Ma'am, as Ma- I mean X5/452's nurse, I must suggest she not leave the grounds in her condition. She is recovered, yes, but not ready to resume combat! You must at least wait for a week for her to train! She will be training the X8s and me. That training is full force! I believe that she will be ready for another mission in a week, but not now!"

"Miss Lydecker, we need you and her to lead them NOW! This mission cannot wait! All the information they destroyed is irreplaceable! We need to strike and strike quickly."

"She is not ready and I highly doubt that she will willingly follow orders!"

"That is what I love about the training the X5s received. They follow orders, any and all. I just love the motto of the earliest soldiers, 'Orders are orders'. Ahhh, the good ol' days."

Cossette sighed, knowing that she was being forced. But something tripped a trigger in her mind. "And I thought that you would not grant me any orders! You know as well as I that someone is much more capable of this than me! You just have sympathy towards me losing my family! I will not accept this mission."

"Orders are orders, Fearia!" With that, she left the room, leaving Cossette dumbfounded.

Do not attempt to adjust your set this is a streaming freedom video bulletin. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and is the only free voice left in the city. A new group of terrorists, led by a small green-haired girl named Dreamer, has popped up in the city of Seattle. They attack any shop that sells any video games or "plushies" of cartoon characters or video game characters. If you are in possession of these so-called "plushies", be aware, they will hunt them down. This has been eyes only, over and out.

Cossette realized what Madame X had done. She had used the name that her father had given her to use over the comlinks. Now she had to follow the orders. "That bitch!" she thought. Cossette stood up and changed into some traveling clothes. She had to get out of this room to get some fresh air. She walked out of the door, locked it and headed to the garage. Her mind wandered and she found herself in front of the ward instead of garage. She opened the door and found Max getting dressed in camouflage hurriedly. "Max?! What are you doing?" Cossette whispered.

"Cossette?" Max asked. She jumped back into bed. "I…"

"…was trying to escape?" Cossette said matter-of-factly. She crossed her arms and looked at her sternly. "Get up!" she ordered. Max did as told. She was all dressed in her camouflage uniform and looked very nervous. Cossette merely smiled and said, "Come on! I'm not leaving you here!"

Max looked relieved, yet suspicious at the sudden turn of events. A nurse, well, not since Hannah, has never been this nice to her. But where was she going? Something had to be wrong!

"We're getting out of here once and for all."

OOOH! That made Max feel so much better. 

"We just have to be on alert at all times. This place is crawling with guards ever since you guys broke in here, now come on!" Cossette gestured for Max to follow her. 

Do not attempt to adjust your set this is a streaming freedom video bulletin. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and is the only free voice left in the city. The terrorist group led by Dreamer now has a new identification method for all civilians to use. These small people cal themselves "chibis" and do not pronounce their R's or L's. Please seek shelter if you hear these two give-away's. This has been eyes only, over and out.

Cossette led Max to a garage after passing easily through the building. They both saw no guards in site.They found a black vinyl-top Cadillac Seville halfway across the garage. "Something's up…" Cossette said to herself. 

"Like what?" Max wondered. She looked around worriedly.

"I'm beginning to think that we are being let out. I've never seen the base so bare!" Cossette said worriedly. She climbed into her car and unlocked the doors so Max could get in. "Let's just get out of here so the trouble can't get to us quickly!"

Max did as told and buckled up. She couldn't help but ask, "Are you Donald's daughter?"

Cossette nodded as she revved up the engine. "And I never hear the end of it! Your father this, your father that…" She backed out of her parking space and slowly drove out of the garage. 

"All the years that I have been here, I never once saw the garage!" Max thought. 

The Seville made it to the gate and was let through without even getting a clearance. "Okay, something is definitely wrong here! Even on days where I had a clearance, I was stopped. Something is up!!!"They drove five miles away, back into civilization. Then it hit Cossette. "We're bugged! Either you are, or the car is, or both!"

Max just looked wide-eyed at Cossette and felt the back of her neck quickly. The implant was still in, but she couldn't feel anything else. She felt lower on her back and felt a computer chip just underneath the skin. "It's me!" She quickly and painfully took out the chip, rolled the window down and threw it out the window.

"But something is wrong with the car," Cossette said worriedly.She focused her hearing to something else, a beeping noise. "Max, on the count of three, jump out of the car."

"Right," Max nodded. 

"One….Two….THREE!" Cossette and Max jumped out of the car right before the bomb went off. The Cadillac exploded before their very eyes."No wonder we got out so easily! THEY WANT ME DEAD!!" 

Madame X saw the Seville explode on the flat-screen TV in her office. "Orders are orders, Miss Lydecker, whether you like it or not! And now, there will be no more insubordination."

Her phone rang after she finished her little soliloquy. "Yes?" 

It was the "replacement" for Lydecker. "How did things work out for the mission?"

"Our pawns have done well. Both dead by now."

"Excellent…" (A/N Did I make him sound like Mr. Burns or what?)

"Now to deploy the X7s," Madame X ordered.

"Yes ma'am."

"Why would they want YOU dead? I'm the X5! Madame X hates ME, not YOU!" Max replied.

"I'm the Lydecker, she hated my father! When he helped you out, I was so discriminated in Manticore because I was his daughter! It is not my fault that my whole family was torn apart!" Cossette practically screamed.

"Your family? Mine escaped from Manticore so we could have a chance at life and you are complaining about your dad being kicked out of Manticore for MY family's sake?" Max returned the blow.

"And the day that you left was the day that my mother was killed and my sisters went missing!"

"Sisters?"

"Yeah, I had two sisters. They were the meanest ones you could ever imagine, but they were still family! And whenever I went for training, they got to go shopping or to the movies with my mother, until the day they all left me and my dad!"

Max just stood dumbstruck. This girl had lived in Manticore her whole life and had to put up with that system killing off her family. But her name sounded so familiar…

"Come on, we gotta find a bus station. I got my money, so we can get to Seattle."

"Seattle? Why Seattle?" Max asked.

"That's where you live, isn't it?" Cossette started walking down the road. "Well, come on, Max!"

Ten minutes later, they were at a Greyhound bus station buying tickets. "You're coming with me?" Max asked.

"Well, I'm not staying here! There is a price on my head at Manticore, so might as well get out," Cossette answered. "Excuse me, sir, when does the bus depart for Seattle?" she asked politely.

"Three AM," the clerk answered. 

Cossette looked at her watch. It was one o'clock. She turned to Max. "Let's get a seat. We have two hours to wait."

"I'll be right there, first, I got someone to call." Max started to walk over to the phone, but realized she had no money. "Umm, Cossette, could I bum some change off you?" 

"Sure!" Cossette pulled out a little change pouch and threw it at Max, who caught it perfectly. "Enjoy."

Max walked over to the pay phone and dialed the all-too-familiar number.

That's all for now! I promise a catfight in the future, but not just yet. Also, this story is gonna prove "interesting"! R&R pwease!!!


	3. The power of a phone call.....

Title-X9

Title-X9

Author-Fearia

Summary-Oh just read it!

Rating-PG-13

Max waited patiently for the phone to pick up. She knew it wasn't wise anyone, but she just had to hear a friendly voice again. Those endless nights at Manticore had made her mind float back to Logan, especially the fact that they had just realized the mutual feelings of love the night before her capture. And then the dream floated back into her mind. The dream that they had saved the day and she and Logan had…*ahem*. 

Cossette found a place to sit and pulled her book bag off her shoulders. She smiled when she realized that Max stood out like a sore thumb. She was still wearing her camouflage suit and combat boots. Then she thought that a girl like that could make something out of that, such as a "fashion statement".Cossette pulled out a notebook and a pen that was held in the rings. Even though she was designed and trained to be a weapon of mass destruction, she still had her creative side! She wrote the stories her mother and father had told her when she was a child. She wrote them down from memory for the day that they would escape her. 

Her favorite wasn't made up by her parents, but it was written by Rudyard Kipling, a very talented English writer. It was entitled "How Fear Came" and was special to her because her name was Fearia, of Fear. It spoke about how the creator of all things gave the millions of creatures their place. But the tiger disobeyed and did what he was not allowed to do. So, in the form of a man, the creator made Fear. Fear would always chase the tiger around wherever he went for all but one day in the year, but that one day was when Fear was afraid of the tiger, and the tiger unafraid of Fear. 

Logan waited by his phone for the X5s to call. So far, the only calls he had gotten were Original Cindy, a confirmation call for Bling's pizza, and a wrong number. He resorted to playing solitare to pass the time. Bling ate his pizza at the kitchen table. Logan said, "Bling, thanks for hanging around. I don't know what would happen if I was left alone.

"What are friends for?" Bling smiled. "You want a piece?"

"Don't mind if I do!" Logan stood up to walk over, but was interrupted by the telephone ringing. "Oh please be an X5!!" Logan prayed. He picked up the phone and said, "Hello?"

It was an X5, one that he thought was gone. "You know, you should have really left me up to finding the others, Logan!" Guess who…

"Nice to hear from you too Zack.Did you get any calls?" Logan responded.

"All of them. That is why you should leave me MY priorities!"

"At least HE is polite as ever…" Logan thought.

"All the X5s are okay, all but Max. Manticore has her. We're staging another attack on them to get her back."

"Zack, that is not a good idea. She's gone anyway."

"That's another thing you got wrong, Logan. She is alive and well, but being taken care of by Lydecker's daughter. Nothing good can come of that."

"How can she be? I watched her die!"

"That's the amazing thing about Max." With that Zack hung up the phone.

Logan followed suit and leaned back into his chair. Bling swallowed his bite of pizza and asked, "So?"

"All the X5s are checked in. And…"

"And what?"

"Max is alive." Logan sat up straight. "Max? Alive?" He went over to the table that Bling was sitting at and said over and over, "Max is alive!"

"Logan, sit down and relax," Bling advised.

"But Max is ALIVE! Do you know what this means?"

"She is alive?"

"EXACTLY!"

Original Cindy picked up the ringing phone. "Yellow."

"Cindy, it's me!" Max said breathlessly.

"Girl!" she exclaimed. "Where the hell are you?"

"Long story, I just gotta tell you something."

"Shoot."

"I'm going to be back tomorrow morning, but not a word to ANYONE, you hear?"

"If you don't want anyone to know, why are to telling me?"

"Because I don't wanna scare the shit out of my roommate."

"Aiight. You can trust me boo."

"Thanks boo," Max said before she hung up the phone.

Cossette smiled and shut her notebook when Max came over. "Making a fashion statement?"

Max merely glared at her and sat next to her. "Like a gray hooded sweatshirt and old jeans are better?" Max grabbed a magazine from off an end table and opened it. She pointed to a picture of a bum. "HE looks better than you!"

Cossette grabbed the mag and looked at it."Ya know he looks kinda cute!" She smiled her evil smile right before Max snagged the magazine back.

Do not attempt to adjust your set this is a streaming freedom video bulletin. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and is the only free voice left in the city. Dreamer had done it! All the plushies in the world are snagged and in the hands of her minions. She has been last spotted en route to Gillette, Wyoming to supposively "pay back" an old friend. Seattle is at a standstill with this terrorist, for now. This has been eyes only, over and out.

Two hours and seven magazines later, the bus rolled in. Now for a six hour trip to Seattle. Cossette and Max climbed aboard and each found a seat that was big enough to curl up on, seeing as there was hardly anyone on the bus. When everyone was boarded and situated, the bus took off.

Cossette thought grumpily, "And people ENJOY riding these things?"

Max looked over at Cossette and asked, "You don't get out much, do ya?"

"I'm Lydecker's daughter, an X9 and a nurse, you do the math." Cossette rested her head against the back of her seat.

"That's the other thing I don't get is how you are an X9 and your are older than the newest ones. What are they X11s or something?" Max asked. 

"No, X9 is the top right now. X10 is under construction. That was supposed to be my next mission, but I was 'terminated' as my father was. You saw what happened to my newest car! That was my sweet sixteen present." Cossette smiled.

"Sweet sixteen? If you are a prototype, how could you know anything about birthdays or family?"

"That's the thing about X8 and X9. X8 completely failed and X9 almost did as well. I am, or was, the only one loyal to Manticore. Now, it is a failure. They believe everyone but me is dead, and now everyone is dead, to them. But I found out that Dreamer, my only friend, is still alive. They were ordered to terminate her, but knowing her, she got out of it some way. I also hear that she is terrorizing the northwest area of America." On that note, the bus stopped.

A small green-haired, clear-eyed, and very curious-looking girl climbed aboard the bus. She took the mic and said, "Hello everybody, this is your new captain speaking. Please relax while my minions take over the bus!"

Cossette stood up and yelled, "DREAMER!"

"Fear?" the girl asked.

Hehehehe, Fear made a cliffhanger! Well, just wait for chapter 4!!! As always, R&R!!!


End file.
